A risk assessment is an important tool for health and safety management and its main objective is to determine the measures required to comply with Health and Safety legislation and law including the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and other associated regulations. Risk assessment is a specific requirement under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. A Risk Assessment considered what might cause harm (Hazards) and what is needed to avoid it and assesses the effectiveness of any control measures in place. Additional control measures can then be identified and put in place to reduce risks to as low as “reasonably practicable”.

Who carries out a Risk Assessment?

As an employer, you have a requirement by law to protect your employees, and others, from harm, and carry out suitable and sufficient Risk Assessment.

Is a risk assessment a requirement by law? 

Yes, under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, you are required to carry out suitable and sufficient Risk Assessment, this must be recorded if you have 5 or more employees.

How should a risk assessment be carried out? 

Assessing risk is just one part of the overall process used to control risks in your workplace.
For most small, low-risk businesses the steps you need to take are reasonably straightforward however it is advised that you get competent Health and Safety Advice.
Risk Assessment is a step-by-step process for controlling health and safety risks caused by hazards in the workplace.

The 5 steps to risk assessment are:

• Identify hazards
• Identify who could be harmed and how
• Assess the risks and identify suitable controls to reduce the risks to a suitable level
• Record your findings
• Review the risk assessment at suitable intervals or after any significant change

Ok, what do I need to know as a small business? Great question let’s take a closer look.
Sourcing a contractor

• You will want to employ a scaffolding company who can prove that their scaffolders have the skills, knowledge, experience, and training, as such the company should have a recorded training process in place and be full members of NASC.
• They must have EL and PL insurance at £10m and £5m, respectively.
• Must prove CISRS/SSSTS/SMSTS competency of supervision and availability of supervisors for daily supervision of scaffolding works.
• Scaffolders that are provided must be competent to do the work and have completed a CISRS scaffolders course and have an in date CISRS Blue scaffolders card.
• The scaffolding company must also have access to a competent scaffold designer and the latest version of NASC technical guidance (TG:20).

Design or TG:20 Compliance Sheet
Simply put, a designed scaffold is one that is out of scope of TG:20 this may be for a bespoke purpose or where additional factors need to be considered such as cantilever, gantry, or buttress scaffolds. Whereas scaffolds built from compliance sheets should be fairly straightforward such as a small scaffold built for some minor façade works.
Scaffold Ties
In certain situations, there may be a requirement to tie the scaffold structure to the building, scaffold ties come in different types, key points to remember is that there should be a design showing the location of the ties in the structure and highlighting any structural ties, which should not be removed. In addition to this scaffold ties should be “pull tested” by a competent person with a pull test machine that is in date for calibration the results should then be compared to the design information to identify any discrepancies. Records of pull testing should be kept on site in the scaffolder’s records.
Scaffold Handovers/Inspection
Scaffolding handovers should be completed in accordance with NASC guidelines, once the scaffold is complete a competent scaffolder should inspect the scaffold for compliance with legislation and best practice guidance once inspected the scaffolder should then issue a handover certificate to the client. The scaffolding at this point will be put into use and the handover certificate to be considered as the first inspection in the 7-day statutory inspection regime.
The requirements for inspection of scaffolds are fairly straightforward and are conducted as follows:

• Every 7 days, starting at handover.
• If there has been any significant adaptions or alterations.
• If there has been any event likely to affect the stability of the scaffold i.e., an extreme weather event, being hit by vehicles/plant etc.

Scaffolds should only be inspected by competent persons who have attended the Construction Industry Scaffolders Recognition Scheme course for scaffold inspection training either basic or advanced course. Where a competent person has completed the scaffold inspection course and also holds training qualification, they could be seen as competent to conduct in house training on scaffold awareness/appreciation, with attendees issued an in-house certificate of attendance and only able to use the training received while at that relevant company.
There may be other more specific scaffolding requirements identified during your project planning these details should be discussed with your scaffolding contractor and your health & safety representative. All information contained in this article is only for information and not meant to be used to form any part of your company procedures or safe system of works. here to edit.

• The law states that businesses must have access to competent H&S advice, either in-house or an external consultant, this should also give you access to advice about health and safety law.
• H&S policy - if a business has more than 5 employees then this should be written down and communicated.  If the business does not have 5 or more employees, then the policy doesn’t have to be written down, however it is still considered good practice to make a written record.
  
• The health and safety law poster, “It will be ok behind the door, wont it?”  Short answer is no, it should be displayed in a prominent location where employees can see it.  “But I only have a small business and nowhere to display a poster, so what now?”  Well, the HSE provides a range of leaflets and pocket cards free to download.  These should then be given to employees with a brief about the details.  
• Insurance might seem like a straightforward process, however if you have employees then you will require employers’ liability insurance.

 

• You must assess the risks associated with your work activities, if you employ 5 or more staff then you will need to make a written record of these assessments.  If you do not have 5 or more employees, then as a minimum you should follow the methodology of risk assessment as follows:

1. Identify the hazards, these are things that have the potential to cause harm.

    2. Identify the risks, this is the likelihood that a hazard will cause harm and if it does, what is the likely severity of that harm. 
  3. Take all steps that are reasonably practicable to eliminate or reduce the hazard, if elimination is not possible, then the risk must be controlled. i.e., you notice that you have a large pothole on a walking surface, you decide that it is a hazard and that you will act, and place a small, printed sign on the wall next to the pothole warning employees, despite having access to traffic cones, warning tape and material to fill the hole etc.   
An employee uses the walking route and badly damages their ankle, it could well be argued that you as the employer reduced the risk by placing the sign on the wall, the question to ask yourself is “Did I do everything which was reasonable and practicable” so could I have done more “Yes” is often the answer.
So, what is reasonable and practicable, well it is a balance between time, cost, and effort, the three scenarios above should give a spotlight into the balance to be struck.

• Communication and consultation with employees are extremely important, employees should be involved in the H&S decision making process, as often as possible, the road to compliance and keeping people safe is a two-way street.

 

• As communication is a two-way street, then as an employer you will have to provide, information, instruction, training, and supervision to and for your employees including those self-employed.

 

• Employees spend a large portion of their time at work; therefore, the provision of welfare facilities are key to showing a businesses commitment to health and safety. These should include toilets both male and female, hand washing facilities with basins, an area to rest and eat meals.  Employees also have the right to work in an environment that is clean and clear, has good ventilation, temperature, suitable lighting, well maintained equipment. 

• As an employer you are required to a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks associated with work activities, one of the key assessments is the provision of first aid and first aid equipment, again we see how communication plays a big part in health and safety as you will have to provide information to employees on who the first aid trained employees are.

• Duties to report accidents and incidents if you employ more than 10 staff, there is a legal requirement to provide an accident book or some form of written reporting system to record workplace accidents.  It is however good practice to have an accident book even with less than 10 employees.  There is also a legal requirement to report certain workplace accidents and incidents to the HSE under the Reporting of injuries diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations, known as RIDDOR.     
• You need ensure you are complying with specific Hazard or equipment specific legislation such as COSHH, Work at Height, Lifting Equipment, Work Equipment, Asbestos, Electricity at Work.

References: Source: Health and Safety Made Simple: The basics for your business (hse.gov.uk)

Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 – CDM2015

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM)are the main set of regulations for managing the health, safety and welfare of construction projects. CDM2015 applies to all building and construction work and includes new build, demolition, refurbishment, extensions, conversions, repair, decoration, work on fixed installations and maintenance Summary of main duties Client.

A client has responsibility to make satisfactory arrangements for safely managing a project. The duties of domestic clients are automatically passed to other duty holders unless they make arrangements. But for commercial clients the duties include:
​
• preparing a client brief and pre-construction information
• drawing together a competent project team
• ensuring that a construction phase plan is drawn up by the principal contractor before the construction phase begins
• appointing a principal designer and principal contractor for projects involving more than one contractor and taking reasonable steps to ensure that they comply with their duties
• notifying the HSE of certain larger projects (where construction work is scheduled to last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point, or, exceed 500 person days)
• making sure that welfare facilities are provided throughout the project • for projects with more than one contractor, making sure that a health and safety file is prepared by the principal designer and is then kept and maintained for future use.
• ensuring that sufficient resources and time are allocated.

Working at height is defined as:
• ‘work in any place, including a place at or below ground level, or obtaining access to or
egress from such a place, while at work, except by a staircase where, if suitable measures
were not taken, a person could fall a distance likely to cause personal injury’.
 
The facts
• Falling from a height of just one or two steps can cause serious injury. Work at any height
can cause injury.
• In 2018/19 falls from height accounted for 8% of employer-reported non-fatal injuries
whilst in the construction industry this figure was 19%.
• Ladders are probably the most used and misused pieces of access equipment.
• Most ladder accidents occur because the ladder is not secured at the top.
• For 5 years work at height has been the single biggest cause of workplace deaths - with
40 people killed in 2018/19
• Unsuitable access equipment (such as chairs and tables) can cause serious accidents even
in low risk premises such as offices and schools.
• It is important to ensure that contractors working on an organisation’s premises (for
example for roof maintenance or window cleaning) are properly controlled and do not
work in a dangerous way.
 
Hierarchy of risk control
• Keep away from working at height wherever possible by changing the task or the way it
can be carried out.
• Use other control measures to prevent falls.
• Always consider fall prevention measures, e.g. edge protection and personal
protection such as harnesses.
• Reduce the likelihood of injury by minimising the distance to fall or its consequences
Always consider safety netting, over active measures, such as having to clip a safety
harness on to a structure.
• Take account of how storage areas and high shelving or wall displays are accessed in
lower risk areas.
Guidelines to employers
• Plan, organise and supervise all work at height
• ensure employees are appropriately trained in safe working methods and the
equipment to be used
• make sure all those involved are competent and trained
• assess the risks and ensure that appropriate work equipment is selected and used
correctly
• manage the risks from fragile surfaces, such as thin roofing materials or skylights
• inspect and maintain all equipment and workplaces intended to control the risks of
working at height
• take account of weather conditions
• ensure planning includes arrangements for emergencies and rescue
• manage risks from falling objects.